Adam has made a couple of lock rings out of HDPE on the CNC router. It took him a couple of tries to get the tool path right. He also made a 3D printed tool for drilling the holes for the 2 screws that prevent the beacon from unlocking itself in flight.
That also took a couple of tries to get right. The shape is milled out, with the locking tabs full thickness. Then the part goes in the 3D printed tool, and we use the drill press to drill through the part and all the way through the tabs. Those holes are tapped for an M2 screw, then the tabs are milled to their final shape. It leaves a half hole in the tab, which matches up with a half hole in the beacon tab.
We have some 3/16" 6061-T6 on the way to make an aluminum part, like the one supplied with the tailbeacon but clocked for the Waiex.
Meanwhile I'm working the electrical side of the project. I soldered on a Deans 3-pin connector onto my wire.
- Deans 3 pin connector.png (883.08 KiB) Viewed 10466 times
A little WD40 and some determination and I was able to push the wire through my conduit. For now I have just chucked a loose piece of shrink wrap over the connector for safety and tie wrapped it in place. The compression fitting originally had a pipe thread on one end. I hacked that off, drilled the hole inside for the tube to pass through, and am using it as a stop so the tube won't get pulled into the tail.
Next up is the fun part - terminating that wire under the panel somewhere. When this is done, I'll be able to remove the tail tip with the tailbeacon on it, and then remove the tailbeacon from the tail tip.